12 December 2006
The twenty-three projects featured on the map show wide temporal and geographic scope - demonstrating that the incidence of Canadian mining projects associated with significant adverse social and environmental problems is far more widespread than the mining industry would have you believe.
The Canadian mining map was produced by the Halifax Initiative during the National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Canadian Extractive Industry in Developing Countries. The Roundtables, which took place between June and November of 2006, fulfilled one of the recommendations made in the groundbreaking report, Mining in Developing Countries and Corporate Social Responsibility, tabled by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (SCFAIT) in June 2005.
The Canadian mining industry often portrays itself as a responsible corporate citizen and frequently characterizes those mining companies whose overseas operations are socially and environmentally destructive as “a few bad apples.” Industry often dismisses reports that reveal the adverse impacts of Canadian mines as “anecdotal.”
As the map reveals, this is an industry-wide problem, present wherever Canadian mining companies invest, worldwide. The map also demonstrates that many mining projects, including those with environmental and social problems, benefit from public support - both directly from the Canadian government and through the IFIs.